Rapids complete another comeback to lift first MLS Cup

Extra-time substitute Mac Kandji's close-range shot ricocheted off George John for an own goal in the 108th minute, lifting the Colorado Rapids to a 2-1 victory over FC Dallas and their first MLS Cup title on a bitter-cold night at BMO Field.

Kandji received the ball on the right side of the FCD box after a cross from Conor Casey, who was named the game's Most Valuable Player. Kandji slipped by Jair Benitez and found space to put a shot on frame from a tight angle. Dallas keeper Kevin Hartman seemed to have it lined up until John re-directed the ball into the goal for the game-winner and the third own goal in MLS Cup history.

"As soon as we came to Toronto, I had a good feeling," said Kandji, who was sent to Colorado by the New York Red Bulls in a midseason trade.

Kandji entered the game in the 98th minute for an injured Omar Cummings (thigh), but he suffered a left leg injury on the play and had to exit the game after the goal despite the Rapids having already exhausted all of their substitutes.

Playing with a man-advantage for the final 12 minutes and change, FC Dallas had numerous chances to tie the game and force penalty kicks. John nearly made amends for his miscue in the final moments, but he was denied by a sprawling Matt Pickens, who touched away the centerback's low shot.

"It was just a reaction," said Pickens, who made five saves. "Luckily I came out on top."

Seconds before the final whistle, Drew Moor cleared a Jeff Cunningham shot off the line.

"We've got a hard-working crew," said Casey, who was denied a penalty after appearing to be fouled by Benitez in the box in the 27th minute. "It feels like we really earned it. Our backs were against the wall for a lot of the game, but we just showed our resolve."

Colorado fell behind in the 35th minute when reigning league MVP David Ferreira opened the scoring. He latched onto a superb Marvin Chavez cross from the right and touched home a one-timer from the edge of the 6-yard box to put Dallas in the driver's seat.

Their physical play, along with that of Casey, a true battering ram up top and while tracking back, stunted Dallas' possession- and passing-oriented attack.

"If you're going to stop FC Dallas you're going to have to knock us out of our rhythm or our attack," FCD coach Schellas Hyndman said. "The thing with physical play is it's disruptive. If that was their game plan, it was perfect."

The Rapids found the answer to Ferreira's goal in the 57th minute through Casey, who scored a gritty goal from his backside to breathe new life into his team.

Zach Loyd's failed clearance attempt to the left sideline afforded winger Jaime Smith the space to attack and cross. Both Hartman and Benitez dove to defend the cross by the near post, and the ball squirted behind Benitez where Casey, on the ground, managed to sweep home a shot into the vacated net.

"There's always mistakes in the game, you just hope they don't end up in the back of the net," Hyndman said.

The Rapids followed rival Real Salt Lake as the second consecutive Western Conference-based Eastern Conference champion to win MLS Cup.

For midseason acquisition Brian Mullan, the championship was his fifth. Conversely, for the longtime field general of the team, Mastroeni, and for the majority of the Rapids' roster, the championship was a first.

"This has been a beautiful ride, capping it off with a win," Mastroeni said. "This has been the most exciting day of my professional career."

Added Casey: "I've never won everything ever, and to do it with someone like Pablo, who has had such a storied career and never won and has given so much to the club, no one deserves it more."

this game was awful. its a shame, on primetime in a world cup year. soccer awareness is high right now and this is the culmination of our league?!
anyway… glad to see kanji winning a trophy. always liked him when he was with the red bulls

I was, at first, unhappy about MLS Cup this year. Then, I became excited.

What actually happened can only be categorized as a mess. Overall, the play was really poor after the first twenty-five minutes of the game. The crowd was disappointing in the beginning, by the end, it was embarrassing. Don Garber’s announcement at half time was less than worthwhile. Colorado’s goals were atrocious. The play for probably 95 minutes of this game was pretty rough. Two teams that were pretty uninspiring and one team that has the worst stadium in the league with the most pitiful fan bases in the league.

So I believe that no team has ever won MLS Cup with a official Designated Player on their roster. Schelotto became a DP after winning the cup with the Crew. He was earning something like 400K before his pay raise.

Looks like Kandji got the last laugh on NY RedBulls. NY assembled a team to win the MLS Cup and look who pops up for the winning play of the game. None other than the man they traded.

When even Lalas can see it’s a bad idea, I worry about Garber’s leadership. There is a reason they don’t have a play-off in European leagues. You have other tournaments. The best teams typically win the NFL and NBA because they all play the same amount of games. We have a trend that is pretty obvious that teams not playing in the US Open Cup and Champions League continue winning MLS. If the play-off is necessary, we need serious changes to reward the teams who play the best during the season.

Congratulations to the Rapids for toughing it out and getting the win after pretty much everybody wrote them off. A classic sports upset scenario in the making from the moment Dallas went up by more than a goal on LA.

You don’t get more for pretty goals, you get more goals from constant effort and seizing opportunities. You make your own luck, as they say. And that back line was massive for Colorado tonight, shutting down almost everything thrown at them, including when the team had to finish a man down, by an obviously strong Dallas team they could only manage to tie in their previous 2 meetings this season.

Especially nice to see such a long-time MLS figure as Mastroeni get to hoist the trophy.

Look people, complaining about the final is a global tradition. Anyone remember the WC final? And how often is the Champions League final a let down? Decent game, factoring in a great finish. The own goal wasn’t shameful, Casey and Kanji made a play and forced the action. Ferreira played like an MVP, and the rest wasn’t so great.

Just please, please MLS, fix the atmosphere, let the higher seed have a home game (even if I doubt Dallas would have sold out…)

I never thought a home final would be the best option until tonight. And, it’s not a knee jerk reaction. As I recall, I’m often unhappy with the lack of passion of the crowd at MLS Cup. Less passion that regular season games, even.

Give MLS Cup to the higher seed. And, give them two weeks between the semis and the final to sell tickets. No club will have an advantage or disadvantage and maybe the players will be better rested.

If he was the best official that MLS has to offer, then the league is screwed.

There is “letting them play” and then there is refusing to follow the laws of the game. I frankly would bet that he doesn’t even know the laws of the game.

This isn’t american football, and this isn’t rugby. Any respectable official shows a minimum of 1 red card, probably 2 or 3. There were intentional kicks and elbows, studs-up tackles, and everything in between.

I guess it was too cold to fill up a stadium where neither team was a local team. Have anyone noticed that they had pub tables at field level, I don’t think I have ever seen that in a pro game. Congrats to Casey, he was a real bulldog out there, if he didn’t get the ball he would run you over. I thought it was a choppy game for a being a final but nevertheless, congrats to the Rapids. I guess the next big game barca-real.

Have to agree with most. I tuned in to watch as a soccer and MLS fan whose team wasn’t in it and kind of had to gut it out to get through the game. The play was so ragged, it was disappointing. The atmosphere was really weak. Have to agree with everyone on that.

One more nit, I just surfed over to ESPN and the game is like the 7th article in their top events box. Yeesh. The MLS championship is below who the Mets are going to name as their next manager. Sad. Just sad.

Casey is just so awful to watch. That he’s the standard-bearer of MLS is a real drag. And I agree that we might need to rethink the “neutral site” game. Toronto is a fantastic city, but — not to be chauvanistic — but you need a passport to get there, and I don’t see that many passport-holders in the Big D. And possibly Colorado. It was embarrassing to see a half-empty stadium…

And it has been said elsewhere: The referee quality is what is holding MLS back. They should really address this in the off-season. Maybe DP referees??

I, too, tend to agree it sucked in the middle of a fan protest. But I seem to remember everyone thought it would be a good showcase for Toronto last Spring, but failure to make the playoffs and the ticket price issue killed any momentum. Look, these fans haven’t been in the Stadium for almost a month.

Okay someone has to say it…Shame on all those TFC fans who were “protesting” by leaving (or not even showing up). Where is the logic in that?? You think MLSE cares how many ppl show up for the MLS Cup? THis wasnt a TFC game, this was a championship game. You guys contributed to a horrible atmosphere. Go “protest” those TFC games instead. It seems you guys like bitchin about alot of things just for the hell of it. First its the All-star game where you guys complained cuz barely any of your crappy players were represented and now this???

You folks worried about the playoff situation and this result should take heart. I mean, this year the #7 team at the end of the regular season, with a 12-8-10 record, won the final without going to PKs, after also winning the conference final without going to PKs.

By contrast last year it was of course the #8 team, with a _losing_ record in the regular season, who won the final, and who did so only on PKs after also winning the conference final on PKs.

I think you’re right that the briefness of the playoffs is an issue. I would at least make the league semis two legs and see if that makes the playoffs feel a little more meaningful.

I remember two years ago when the Red Bulls made the run to the final after a relatively mediocre season, it felt weird. I was happy, but it didn’t feel quite right to have done just OK for 30 games and then all of a sudden be playing for it all after 3 good games. When the Red Bulls finally win it all (knock on wood), I want it to come after a season where we’re strong all year long.

wow. that was one of the chippyest games I’ve ever seen. if it was officiated by la liga refs I think you would have seen about 6 players on each side by the end. Even premier league refs would have called more yellows. while i appreciated the passion and commitment of two team playing their hearts out, the beautifull game does not happen with all that pushing, tripping, agressive tackling

I personally don’t like the MLS being played at a predetermined stadium. While neither Colorado nor Dallas is really a super draw at their stadiums, you aren’t really helping fans by moving it somewhere else. This isn’t the NFL that will draw wherever it wants to in the United States. There is no point in making it harder on the hard core fans.
As for the game, the only interesting thing was the second half of overtime. I don’t really care how brutal the soccer was. It was flat out fun.

But seriously, wasn’t it more troubling, from the perspective of the league and the playoff system and the sport’s image and all that, when a sub-.500 team won it all? And anyway it’s always disappointing when the winners are decided on PKs.

What’s more depressing than that comparison is the prospect of slipping backward to the previous kind of situation again, with 10 teams heading to the playoffs next year…

Agreed all around. It all just feels wrong. And expansion will make the playoffs feel less, not more, meaningful. Heck, at this point I’d prefer limiting the playoffs to the top two in each conference and making the semis and finals each THREE legged total goals series with the higher seed getting two out of the three at home. But that’ll never happen.

That was one of the ugliest MLS games I’ve ever seen. Let’s watch all the players bitch after every call! Let’s watch Conor Casey get the MVP award for head-butting and running over everything in sight! And it all went down in one of the most dismal atmospheres I’ve sever seen in an MLS Cup final. Too bad.

A bit tangential, but when was the last time the winning team did not have a sponsor’s name/logo emblazoned across their jerseys? And will this result finally change that for Colorado? (or for Dallas, for that matter?)

I have been to 2 MLS Cup Finals at the Home Depot Center and 2 at RFk and all were near sellouts. I don’t think it is a matter of playing at a neutral site that is the problem it was just THIS site that was a problem.

Stopped watching right after the David F. goal because the game had no energy. I left thinking Dallas would put it away with another. Surprised to see Colorado come back and win. If the trends hold true then I guess we can expect a different two teams next year as these two will be stretched too thin by CCL and other tourneys.

RSL can make some serious noise in CCL quarter finals. Seems as though winning that competition would mean as much as MLS Cup at this point.

I thought Conor Casey deserved the MVP. He worked hard all night, scored one goal, and set up the second. Also, Casey’s possession and hold-up game killed Dallas late in extra time. Colorado had a surprising amount of possession with ten men, and the big bald guy played a huge role in that.

I found myself wishing that Dax McCarty could have been with the National Team in South Africa. That kid was everywhere tonight.

I didn’t have a problem with the game’s quality. It was a hard-fought contest in bitter weather. I like physical soccer.

Congratulations to both sides. Both should be proud of their achievements this season. Now fill up those stadiums!

For all the lead up talk of “Toronto always has a great atmosphere”, the event was lifeless. I could almost hear the crickets on TV. I also found it amusing that people left the stadium way before the 85th minute. And by extra-time the stadium looked half empty.

Granted, the play on the pitch wasn’t great but you could sense that both teams were trying their hardest to win the match. You can’t fault either team for their effort.

The 8th best team in baseball won this year and the 14th best team in hockey nearly won last year, lets all get over our selves and recognize this happens in all major sports, did anyone really think the dutch were the second best team in the world with two thugs at holding midfield? Also, this game was about as pretty as the world cup except we had 3 goals, some great saves, a dramatic OT and no obvious red card in the 20th min.

Yeah, that’s a good point. I’m not trying to kick Toronto (lovely city and a lovely stadium and a great fan base). And I know MLS likes to show off new stadia and also throw a bone to franchises/fans that may not have a championship (kind of like the NBA does with the all-star game hosting). But a neutral site seems to work in some locations and not others–I won’t go into why (I’m just be theorizing–no hard data). So I don’t see that decision (continue or discontinue with neutral site) as being cut and dried.

Maybe the answer is to decide what you want the playoffs to be. And if you want to reward teams for a great regular season, than you do away with neutral site and the top-seed hosts. If it’s to “spread the wealth” than you continue to do neutral site and you pick the newer SSS or clubs that haven’t been successful lately. If it’s to make a big deal out of the championship, than you chose warm weather sites at locations that seem to either have a diverse enough fan-base to draw no matter who shows up or have a proven track record drawing fans for events without their team (all-star, international matches, foreign club preseason). But right now, it seems like it’s a hodge-podge of everything. So we have a playoff system that kinda rewards the higher seed but only for the conference final, a first round that sells tickets (2 games) and gives exposure but rewards weaker seeds, and a final that spreads the wealth but may not bring much passion to the match.

I can’t believe all the whining. Great soccer it wasn’t. But then the first final (DCU over LAG in Boston in the freezing rain) was ugly and gutty. This was a close match in conditions that lended themselves to a lot of running around, poor touches, physical play, direct soccer. I’ve lost track of the number of finals (including WC finals–played in far better conditions) that were just butt-ugly soccer but were notable b/c of who was playing and what it took to get there.

Congrats to Colorado on winning. They didn’t do this with smoke and mirrors but fairly. Congrats to FCD on an outstanding season and making the final. Unless they lose a critical piece like Ferreira or Hernandez or Hartmann, you have to like their chances again…young team, attractive style–they’re only going to get better.

Now, here’s the bad news–later today, some of the players on both of these teams are going to find that they’re expansion bait (I wouldn’t be surprised if Kandji is one of those players). Always a tough transition–final in one breathe and “thanks but don’t let the door hit ya on the way out” the next.

In defense of Toronto, last years final atmosphere at quest was no better even with more fans. No one cared and because the game was scheded for late Sunday night we all wanted to leave when it was tied in regulation. And the quality was no
Ore memorable between LA and RSL.

Not sure what the motive was for 10 team playoffs.
Maybe mls wants to ensure as many larger
Markets make it into the post season

Not on Saturdays, when most of the games are played. If you can’t get from Downtown Dallas to Frisco in less than 30 minutes on a Saturday, then you’re riding a bicycle. The location sucks, but it’s not like it’s in Sherman

Sucks, Dallas deserved to win they played the better game and got hosed by bad ref calls and two crappy goals. 10 teams make playoffs next year? Jesus Christ MLS!! What next the 6th seed wins the title next year!!

No kidding. I don’t hear this much of it when my son’s U14 team fails to get a better result. (Thankfully!)

And it’s rather embarrassing for this league and the sport in terms of its image and so forth in the US when you compare such a reaction to the more level-headed and wisened-with-age sort of reaction of fans of other sports in the country…

I got home from the game at 1:00am on a Sunday night and i drove, if i’d taken public transit it would’ve been 2:00am. I don’t blame anyone for leaving early if they had to go to work the next day, considering how poor the game was.

Pizza Hut Park just needs a few upgrades even though it is only 5 years old. How about an overhead roof? I mean, if MLS is going to insist on Dallas playing in the summer during the afternoon when it is 100+ degrees, some shade would be nice for the few fans willing to brave that. Actually, night games during summer for hot climate teams and a roof anyways?

Agree, little upset that Colorado won. They won by the ball bouncing their way…literaly…FCD kept most posession and for me dominated. They are just a funner team to watch, than the boring long ball and counter attack tactics of Colorado. Just compare in the manner both teams got to the final…that speaks for itself.

As a neutral fan watching, I have to say I actually enjoyed the whole game. But, the vibe in Toronto was sorry. I really hope the higher seeded team can get to play at home from now on. Only the super bowl is big enough to attract fans to a predetermined neutral site. And even then it is mostly rich corporate people there to watch the game. I mean, why would anyone in Toronto care to watch to western teams play? and apparently they didn’t.

No more sunday night MLS cups, please. Saturday afternoons/evenings make it much easier for supporters to make travel arrangements. I know a few suporters didnt make the trip because they couldnt get Monday off under such short notice.

Was the MTLxTOR hockey game the reason the league wanted the final on sunday, as opposed to saturday?

Lame crowd but that was to be expected with all the Canuckistani indifference (the surrounding festivities/events seemed top-notch, though). About a 1/4 of the crowd bailed after halftime and I’m sure it had more to do with the late kickoff rather than lackluster play.

The half empty stadium looked Mickey Mouse. I think the final should be played at the team that has the highest goal differential during the playoffs and if that’s a tie, then the team with the best regular season record. The idea of neutral sites is a horrid one. MLS is just not big enough yet to pull of a Super Bowl type of situation.

As a Rapids fan, gotta say Im not too thrilled with how we won, but its a win, defense stuck it out and stopped the Dallas attack, playoff format sucked, blah blah blah, but if if anything, watching the look on Pablo’s face when he was handed the trophy was awesome, it was like watching a little kid again, really happy they finally got one for him, he means a lot to the Rapids organization

MLS Playoffs = Spoiled leftovers at dinner time. I’m a Chicago Fire fan, but they really shouldv’e just given LA the league title because they had the best record over the 30-game season. The MLS Cup is just a tournament with an additional 4-5 undeserving teams getting a shot at undesrved glory, therefore making the MLS look like a “Mickey Mouse” League where everyone’s dreams may come true if they wish upon a star, like Julian Baudet did last night.

At halftime, I switched over to check in on the Giants-Eagles game. I’m not a fan of either of those teams, and it wasn’t a very compelling game, but I simply FORGOT to ever go back to watch the second half of the final. Okay, so maybe I have memory issues, but man did that game have soccer issues!

I spoke with a few guys this morning who agreed that the neutral site format is not good for an MLS final. If you agree, or disagree, and want to let the league know what you think; you can email them at feedback@mlsnet.com.